George Fernandes’ fate awaits Sharad Yadav?

Patna,(BiharTimes): On Friday Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav had to perform a very difficult duty. Till a few hours back rumours were doing the rounds in the political circle in Patna and Delhi that Sharad Yadav wants himself to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha as he is not interested in contesting election from Madhepura, the seat he is at present representing in the Lok Sabha.

But then at the function organized to celebrate the birth anniversary of late Karpoori Thakur, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, suddenly announced that the party’s national president, Sharad Yadav, would disclose the names of the three Rajya Sabha candidates.

This was a significant departure from the past as the Rajya Sabha nominees are not announced in a public function in such a way.

Sharad was taken by surprise. That he was not aware about the decision of Nitish can well be measured at the manner in which he fumbled over taking the name of Kahkashan Parween. He could not even take her full name and called her the mayor of Bhagalpur when she is now the chairperson of the State’s Women Commission.

Anyway Nitish took the occasion not only to cut to size Sharad Yadav, but also hit out at Shivanand Tiwary.

He said that “log kahten hain party ki halat kharab hai. Agar halat kharab hai to ladiye. (People use to say that the condition of the party is bad. If it is so then fight). He directly referred to Shivanand’s speech during the Rajgir’s Chintan Shivir, a day after BJP’s Hunkar Rally of October 27.

But it is the sorry predicament of Sharad Yadav, which came as a shock. When on Thursday news started floating in Patna that the names of the three sitting Rajya Sabha MPs of the party have been dropped the BiharTimes reached out to sources very close to Sharad Yadav in New Delhi. Much to the amazement of the newsportal the sources were not aware of the news. Half an hour later it was confirmed that the news rotating in Patna is correct, but the sources failed to say as to who would be the replacement. The BiharTimes was just told that Sharadji is going to Bihar on Thursday evening itself to attend Karpoori Thakur’s birth anniversary on Friday.

Later the news came that Sharad is interested in going to Rajya Sabha. But then by publicly declaring that the party’s national president would be disclosing the names of the three candidates Nitish Kumar just dictated his term.

Poor Sharad, once a powerful students’ leader of Madhya Pradesh had perhaps never imagined that he would end up just becoming His Master’s Voice of Nitish Kumar, a much junior politician.
What political observers fear most is that like George Fernandes, a much popular trade union leader, Nitish would simply abandon Sharad as the latter had lost his utility.